Silver Surfers!

Published: 11th March 2008

Author: Words and photo by Toby Fuller

Smith, Snow and Kane on the crest of a wave

The 2008 domestic motocross season fires into action at Little Silver, Devon, for the opening round of the British Open, U21s and Ladies’ championships. After a late venue change (it was originally scheduled for Matchams) the fast hillside circuit’s a little one-lined making passing tough.

A good start’s important and for the first encounter of the season in the Open class it’s Bryan MacKenzie who sets the early pace, closely followed by PAR Honda new boys Jordan Rose and Ray Rowson with Pioneer Emberson Yamaha new recruit Wayne Smith close in tow. Rose pulls out after four laps with bike failure leaving the leading trio to battle it out and Rowson and Smith slip past MacKenzie to finish in that order.

Race two and the flying MacKenzie gates well again but has Smith and Rowson for company. Both nail MacKenzie on the same lap and this time Smith takes the win from Rowson and a fast-closing Mark Hucklebridge in third. Smith edges the overall win on the last race verdict.

With Rowson – who dominated the U21s in ’07 - moving up a class for ’08 it looks like the U21 title could be anyone’s this season. Consistency wins championships and it’s KTM UK rider Alex Snow who dominates the day right from the off in qualifying to take a double race win, the first narrowly from Shane Carless and the second from Kristian Whatley.

Other notables on the day are Joe Dark, Ashley Greedy, David Games and Josh Waterman.

Bring on the ladies and it’s the super-fast Suso Suzuki rider Natalie Kane who romps away with two race wins, the latter by a cool two minutes from Louise Williams and Hannah McCleod.